It’s clear from the comments at PolicyBlog and in other forums that consumer demand for high-definition programming is skyrocketing.  Verizon is responding by adding new HD channels across the FiOS TV footprint, with the goal of offering all available major HD programming by the end of this year.

But sometimes cable companies play hardball with HD programming they control.  Take the MSG regional sports network in New York City and the MSG-Buffalo channel that we want to be able to offer to future customers in that market.

Standing in the way is Cablevision, which owns MSG and is preventing competitors like Verizon getting MSG – a channel that is subject to the Cable Act’s program access rules – in HD format.  Under those rules, Cablevision is required to make that programming available to Verizon.  In 2006, after we filed a program access complaint with the FCC, Cablevision agreed to provide the standard definition version of the MSG regional sports network in New York City.  But so far Cablevision is refusing to provide the HD feed for the same programming.

So we’re back at the Federal Communications Commission, which is considering various issues concerning access to video programming. 

It’s pretty obvious that Cablevision is trying to circumvent the FCC’s program access rules by denying Verizon MSG in HD – claiming that just because Cablevision elects to route the HD format over fiber, it is somehow not the same “programming” as the standard definition format delivered using satellites.  And as if Cablevision’s motives in evading the program access were not clear enough, after denying us the HD MSG programming, Cablevision advertises that it is the only carrier to provide it in HD.

Verizon is asking the FCC to condemn these practices and to clarify that, if programming is subject to the FCC’s rules as Cablevision’s MSG channels are, then competitive providers are entitled to that programming in all available formats.  In other words, the cable incumbents should not be permitted to circumvent the rules and deny competitors and consumers the benefits of HD.